Bowlers let us down, says Mithali

Indian skipper Mithali Raj blamed her team's poor bowling for the defeat, saying she did not expect Sri Lanka to post 280 runs.

"Honestly 280 is something I didn't expect Sri Lanka to score with the kind of bowling attack we had," she said adding the bowlers offered too much width to the Sri Lankans to score square of the wicket.

"When we chase a big total it is important to have a good start. We lost a quick wicket and intended the partnership between me and Thrirushkamini to go big. Then we lost Harmanpreet (Kaur), that's where I thought the match is going to be tight," she said about the chase.

"All the bowlers were off colour today. I guess we can expect one or two to be off-colour but not all of them. I had a lot of faith in my bowlers," she said indicating that the team's plans were not executed to the hilt.

Mithali had expected that the spinners, who gave away 123 runs in 21 overs, would find it difficult on the wicket, but felt the pacers should have fared better. "The wicket wouldn't have helped the spinners, but we expected the pacers to do a decent job. They conceded a lot of runs in the first 15 overs. Jhulan (Goswami) had an off day today, but she had performed in the previous matches," she said. Also, just like the previous game against England, too many runs were conceded in the final overs.

"Our first intention while batting was to chase 283. But as wickets fell, the player's had getting to the target of 251 in their mind. All of them were aware of it," Mithali said about the target required to surpass West Indies on net run-rate.

Mithali played down the talk over the future women's cricket in India and referred to the positives which could be taken out from the tournament. "But, it is disappointing to be out of the tournament as the host team," she said."